Why can't I find a job to main?

Wanted to make a small vent about my experiences with this game. Keep in mind; this is in no way an attack on anyone or anything else, this is just me talking about my issues with jobs, and I have no idea where else to post this, so...

So, like the title says, I'm having some difficulties picking out a main job to play for FFXIV. A couple of caveats about me; I'm someone who is big on both roleplay ang gameplay, means that I prefer finding a job that makes sense lore-wise that is still fun to play. In my case, I was thinking about making a character that is from The First Shard, the setting for Shadowbringers; hence some of my previous posts here. On top of that, I also run with a group of my friends sometimes; since they already have a Tank and Healer, that leaves me with DPS - which is what I enjoy the most in other video games anyway.

So, I've been going around and trying out a few classes here and there; thing is, I haven't quite found a class that really "clicks" with me yet. Lancer/Dragoon and Summoner is out for RP reasons, and I leveled Archer/Bard up to 50, but I ended up getting a bit burnt on it. Dancer was considered, but I found myself having difficulties playing support. I've given Machinist, Samurai, and Reaper a pretty good shot, but they again failed to "click" with me for whatever reason, and it frustrates me to no end - that second one in particular, as I LOVE samurai games.

At this point, that leaves me with Red Mage, Rogue/Ninja, Thaumaturge/Black Mage, and Pugilist/Monk as my current options; I'm slightly hesitant about RDM, NIN, and MNK, given their usage on buffs and my legendary crappiness at both remembering to keep my buffs up and, in the case of RDM, targeting my teammates for heals - I can aim at the boss really well, but I tend to fumble trying to target specific teammates.

That all being said; if I can't find a job that I enjoy maining then... I'll go right back to maining SAM and RPR for completing the story.

What? I love this game and its story; there's no way I'm giving it up just because of my failure to find a job I like. I'm aiming to make it through the Endwalker MSQ, at least; I've put way too much investment into the story for me to give up now.

How much do you like Black Mage? You also don't NEED to focus on only one job. Maybe get equipment first for one you feel is easier and then get stuff for your 3 or so most liked jobs.

i started this game with arr and have leveled every job in the game this is my fourth time capping my jobs so i got a lot of time learning all of them so work your jobs pick the ones you like and learn them then pick a good fc and start doing runs.

The thing about leveling new jobs at this point in the game's lifespan is that jobs really don't unfold until usually very late in the game as skills get pruned and spaced out to make space for shiny new attacks every expansion, leaving inbetween leveling very stale for some jobs (for example the highly praised reaper absolutely sucks below 80 and really only feels complete at 90).

I know that leveling jobs is actually half of the game in a sense but I'd focus on the following aspects when it comes to find a RP main:
- your weapon choice
- your party role and teamplay
- the overall aesthetic of the attacks and vibe of the job

stuff like shutting down jobs because they wouldn't make sense lorewise (excluding Dragoon and Summoner) would be a shame cause there are always ways to circumvent that (i.e. calling yourself an Evoker instead of Summoner as the reflection version of the Summoner which was founded by the allag - don't forget who founded them in the first place, I'm sure there are ways to make it interesting ;))

tl;dr - you might like Summoner on regardless due to minimal buffing and mostly focus on direct damage or Black Mage if you don't mind the long cast times

Give it time & see what resonates best for you (what’s the hurry anyway right?).

Or you could choose to be versatile & be expandable.

Try not to get burn

There are a lot of options, it'll take a while for you to find that "right one."

Are there other MMOs that you've played with a class that you enjoy? Maybe we can find something similar over here. I'm not entirely sure what the SMN/DRG RP issues are, but DRG is definitely my favorite melee DPS.

Are you looking for something that is difficult to play well, or are you just looking for something easy or middle of the road to sit down and have fun with?

I can say that RDM doesn't need to target teammates to heal. You shouldn't be healing at all whenever you're in a group, there's no need for it. Now, you may need to rez somebody, but that should be fairly rare if you're just doing casual content.

BRD was, by far, my least favorite job pre-50 and I ended up boosting it (boo! boo! I know). At higher levels it's actually much better and popped up to the top of my list of DPS.

It might be a good idea right now to find a SET of jobs that you think that you might end up liking in the long-run

Red Mage, Black Mage, and Summoner share equipment
Reaper and Dragoon share equipment
Samurai and Monk share equipment
Bard, Machinist, and Dancer share equipment

If you at least narrow down to one of those sets, it'll at least be easier to flip between them.

Keep in mind though that you are kind of "lowish" level and a lot of the jobs don't start really clicking until lvl 70+. Most jobs before then do feel a little "incomplete."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shikiseki

The thing about leveling new jobs at this point in the game's lifespan is that jobs really don't unfold until usually very late in the game as skills get pruned and spaced out to make space for shiny new attacks every expansion, leaving inbetween leveling very stale for some jobs (for example the highly praised reaper absolutely sucks below 80 and really only feels complete at 90).

---

This.
I would suggest keep playing the ones that interest you the most. Or switch between 2 or 3 of them.
Based on your post, I feel like you already gravitate towards SAM and RPR, so maining those two jobs while progressing with MSQ seems like the best option.

I would say not to worry about targeting teammates for heals as a Red Mage. As soon as that becomes needed then the run is almost certainly doomed. Mostly let the healers take care of heals and DPS the mobs. The only thing I do is use verraise on already KOed teammates.

For red mage you can make a macro list to put the buttons next to the party member list so you only need to click that button to cast raise on them. So all you'll have to care about is proccing dual cast and then clicking that button to raise the teammate number 2/3/4/etc it's a very simple macro and it helps a lot in reducing targetting issues :)

I... wasn't expecting the support all of you guys are giving me right now; I'm used to Reddit and Discord, if you know what I mean. Thank you; I'll try and keep going for now - I only have a little time left on this subscription, probably won't be able to finish the Shb MSQ, but I'll do what I can.

I'm also going to give RDM a better shot sometime; I did try out the job a while back, but I found it a little complicated starting out, so I decided to put it on the backburner for later. Looks like I'll be bringing it out again! :D



Also, didn't mention this in the original post; I'm using a controller, not a keyboard. I know it's still possible to assign buttons to different sets, but I keep forgetting about using said sets, so I'm always assigning my skills and such to the main 16 slots there. It's been working out well enough so far, but if I need to use more than 16 slots for a job when I hit 90, I'd like to know.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Travel

Also, didn't mention this in the original post; I'm using a controller, not a keyboard. I know it's still possible to assign buttons to different sets, but I keep forgetting about using said sets, so I'm always assigning my skills and such to the main 16 slots there. It's been working out well enough so far, but if I need to use more than 16 slots for a job when I hit 90, I'd like to know.

---

Controller player here. If you need more buttons, there's an option in character configuration to allow quick access to a second chunk of your cross-hotbar by toggling both triggers and in that same window an option to grant you another chunk of hotbar by double tapping one trigger.

I forget which tab specifically, but if button space is a problem that's the easiest fix to it for controller players if you don't like manually swapping bars between your actions.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Travel

I'm slightly hesitant about RDM, NIN, and MNK, given their usage on buffs and my legendary crappiness at both remembering to keep my buffs up and, in the case of RDM, targeting my teammates for heals - I can aim at the boss really well, but I tend to fumble trying to target specific teammates.

---

Typically if you have to heal on RDM your group is already doomed. The only thing you would usually need to target another player for is a combat raise. The only buffs you have to worry about are Embolden and Manification every two minutes and Acceleration. Red Mage is fun, you should give it a shot. I am by no means a caster type player but RDM has just enough melee and overall style to keep my attention when the mood strikes me.

Red Mage is pretty easy to gain a grasp over. Vercure is just something you use to heal yourself or take the place of the Healer when they end up dying for whatever reason in order to keep the Tank up long enough for your Healer to revive and recover their mp.

Its a job with a pretty solid mixture of offensive and support spells that mostly lean more in the offensive route.

Its pretty flashy, too, though no where near as flashy as Reaper, but its fun to play if your into dressing like a red musketeer.

I suggest giving this one a try. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Travel

I... wasn't expecting the support all of you guys are giving me right now; I'm used to Reddit and Discord, if you know what I mean. Thank you; I'll try and keep going for now - I only have a little time left on this subscription, probably won't be able to finish the Shb MSQ, but I'll do what I can.

I'm also going to give RDM a better shot sometime; I did try out the job a while back, but I found it a little complicated starting out, so I decided to put it on the backburner for later. Looks like I'll be bringing it out again! :D



Also, didn't mention this in the original post; I'm using a controller, not a keyboard. I know it's still possible to assign buttons to different sets, but I keep forgetting about using said sets, so I'm always assigning my skills and such to the main 16 slots there. It's been working out well enough so far, but if I need to use more than 16 slots for a job when I hit 90, I'd like to know.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xAFROx

Controller player here. If you need more buttons, there's an option in character configuration to allow quick access to a second chunk of your cross-hotbar by toggling both triggers and in that same window an option to grant you another chunk of hotbar by double tapping one trigger.

I forget which tab specifically, but if button space is a problem that's the easiest fix to it for controller players if you don't like manually swapping bars between your actions.

---

Yeah, I'm on PS5, and You should be able to enable "W cross hotbars" It'll give you a third and fourth set of hotbars that you get by pressing R2 or L2 twice giving you 32 abilities on your screen and easily accessible. That's definitely enough for most jobs. You can ALSO enable L2 + R2 and R2 + L2 to access a fifth and sixth hotbar, but those ones aren't easily visible. I typically use those hotbars for shared abilities (sprint, limit break, etc)

ALSO, there are some guides for targeting with controller, I'd suggest to take a look at. Once you get used to it, it's actually very easy to target different things:

Left/Right on D-pad is basically Tab targetting
Up/Down on the D-pad cycles through party members

L1+Up/Down on d-pad cycles through the enemy list that you're in fights with

Ontop of that, there's a ton of changes that you can make with the "tab targetting" portion. Including "filtering" different things, for example you can set it up so that when your weapon is out that you only tab target through enemies.

This is a good start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzb23Xn0pf4

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LeonKeyh

R1+Up/Down on d-pad cycles through the enemy list that you're in fights with

Ontop of that, there's a ton of changes that you can make with the "tab targetting" portion. Including "filtering" different things, for example you can set it up so that when your weapon is out that you only tab target through enemies.

This is a good start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzb23Xn0pf4

---

Whoa, whoa, R1 does something with the d-pad?? Holy crap, I've gotta try that when I log on again. I've just been using the left and right hoping enemies aren't moved in a way that makes me go in a 2 target circle when I'm trying to snag enemy number 4 in a pack, lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xAFROx

Whoa, whoa, R1 does something with the d-pad?? Holy crap, I've gotta try that when I log on again. I've just been using the left and right hoping enemies aren't moved in a way that makes me go in a 2 target circle when I'm trying to snag enemy number 4 in a pack, lol

---

Sorry, will edit to fix: L1+Up/Down on d-pad goes through the stuff you're in combat with (in the encounter window) as mentioned; L1+D-pad left/right cycles through alliance members.

I think it's because they all suck. They really dumbed everything down so not much is engaging all that much. Seeing a pattern of level job to drop job to level new job and you just get burnt out on it since you have no real identity outside of do rotation and use utilities. A lot of jobs are much more fun in PvP and I hope a lot of what makes the jobs fun there funnels over next xpac.

If you want something Lorewise then it's going to be Warrior > Dragoon > Samurai > Dark Knight > Paladin given the cinematic expansion trailers.

Honestly my suggestion is to just think of what fantasy you enjoy the most and then try and stick with it.
Jobs fundamentally change quite drastically with the levels, a BLM at 90 is totally different than a BLM at 60.
I think you'd be surprised how much they open up, I think it's fairly different than in most other MMO's how drastically they can change at later levels and how it all flows together.

DRG comes to mind too, it's just a different beast entirely when you've got your whole toolkit.
I am unsure whether I'd recommend DRG on controller tho but maybe someone who plays it with a controller could give you a better idea.
But DRG has quite a lot of buttons to weave.

I think that you might enjoy RDM tho, RDM is very popular for good reason they're very fun to play and fairly straight-forward and easy to understand.
Don't worry too much about it feeling complicated, you'll get it with time.
Most people are also very forgiving and won't give you a hard time about it.

If you want the most streamlined suggestion then I'd say WAR.
I was quite surprised when I leveled WAR, WAR and BRD were the only two Jobs that I never really took to max level in any expansions but I decided to do it in EW.
And WAR has this feeling of being fairly complete relatively early, and then it kinda feels like you're getting upgraded versions of those attacks.
I'd definitely say it's one of the most consistent and streamlined ones, it receives it's big skills fairly early on compared to others and then you basically get upgraded versions of those abilities.
So it's not like it changes so drastically all of the sudden at certain points it's a fairly consistent curve.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MagiusNecros

snip

---

The OP doesn't have the old way the Jobs play to compare with.
They don't all suck cmon why y'all gotta be like this all the time...
I get people are salty about changes they don't like but the OP simply doesn't have that reference, someone who starts SAM today won't have experienced Kaiten for example and won't even know that it's missing.

Especially compared to most other MMO's I still think even in the current state FFXIV Jobs are more engaging than other Classes tbh.
Even if I still miss some of the older iterations ( especially some support Jobs and utility, but that's a wider issue of TP removal and Enmity being simplified etc ).

It's funny how you mention that they're more fun in PvP too when they're even more simplified in PvP to the point you basically have 3-5 skills and even less engaging systems.
Like wat.
I really wonder what other MMO's some of you guys think are so much better in this regard.
I've played a lot of MMO's in my life and even current FFXIV is still significantly more complex and engaging with its Jobs than in other MMO's I've played.

Especially interesting when the OP said he found RDM complicated.
I really think we take for granted how complicated the Jobs actually are to new players in particular, it's also how you end up with myths today about how BLM is '' immobile ''.
Because people don't understand their own tools.

Yeah, to me Optimal Drift on MNK and regaining alignment with cd's and timers on MNK as well as other Jobs may be fairly simple and straight-forward.
But that's also because I've played it all to death I have pretty deep layers of muscle memory so it's going to feel easy.
But if you actually look around and ask people who don't they often feel like Jobs are too complicated and difficult to play even.
Ofc when you're used to something it's going to feel easy tho, it's the same with fights too at some point you can do the fights while borderline wearing a blindfold.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CidHeiral

Typically if you have to heal on RDM your group is already doomed. The only thing you would usually need to target another player for is a combat raise. The only buffs you have to worry about are Embolden and Manification every two minutes and Acceleration. Red Mage is fun, you should give it a shot. I am by no means a caster type player but RDM has just enough melee and overall style to keep my attention when the mood strikes me.

---

Pretty much lol, whenever I see a RDM or PLD spam Vercure or Clemency I am like '' uh oh ''.


Edit: Also for OP, if you enjoy DNC I wouldn't let the idea of '' support '' get in your way.
You'll never get shut out of content because of it, people will want a physical ranged DPS.
And they have respectable enough damage where I don't think you'll have issues in solo content.

No one will look down on it if that's what you're afraid of.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Travel

I'm used to Reddit and Discord, if you know what I mean.

---

Tbh don't get your hopes up lol.
This place can test your sanity at times.

Especially when it comes to doom and gloom I'd suggest taking it with a huge fist of salt, people in this place have a tendency to be extremely hyperbolic and negative for the sake of being negative.
Even if there's some kind of a point there it tends to get derailed into realms of absurdity.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Travel

in the case of RDM, targeting my teammates for heals

---

This is not a thing. RDM is not a healer. Vercure is there to proc Dualcast when there is no target for an offensive spell so that you can begin the next phase or encounter with a stronger spell.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CidHeiral

The only thing you would usually need to target another player for is a combat raise

---

And with this macro, you don't even need to target anyone for that. It will raise "someone, anyone, I mostly don't care who" which is fine if only one person is down. The priority order if more than one person is down and you have no mouseover is (in a full party with default party list sorting) healers, tanks, DDs who are more likely to have raise, other DDs.

Code:

---

/ac Verraise <mo>
/ac Verraise <t>
/ac Verraise <tt>
/ac Verraise <4>
/ac Verraise <5>
/ac Verraise <2>
/ac Verraise <3>
/ac Verraise <8>
/ac Verraise <7>
/ac Verraise <6>
/wait 1
/p Verraise  Just used it.
/micon Verraise

---

I'm with you op.
None of the jobs seem fun and for me easy. They feel complex and bloated.
I'm at a point where do I start looking at other mmos despite liking FF14 overall.

Throwing in another vote for giving RDM a try. You generally don't have to cast heals. Raising is cake. Queue up your dualcast and change targets then swap back.
The great thing about XIV is you're free to play whatever however. Talk to your friends more, rather than these people here. They can be more help figuring things out :D

play a redmage, and don't think to much about it, if role play is what you want then Redmage can believably role play, a fighter, a healer or a dps mage.